Toddler Escapes from Melbourne Childcare Centre (Again!)

The family of two-year-old Maisie, who managed to escape from her Nido Early School childcare centre in Werribee, Victoria, have a lot of questions.

First of all, how could this have happened? How does a toddler escape from childcare? Why wasn’t anyone watching their little girl? And what can be done to ensure this never happens again?

To add to the confusion, nearly the exact same thing happened just six months ago at the same childcare centre, but that incident involved a little boy. He was caught on camera running along the footpath out the front before wandering out onto the road. You can view the footage here.

Toddler escapes childcare, found wandering out the front

This time around, it was Maisie, an adorable little girl who was found around 9:30am by a parent. She was found wandering alone along the front of the building yesterday morning, after leaving through an unlocked gate.

One of the parents of a child who attended the centre noticed Maisie and brought her back to the centre, nearly 10 minutes later.

‘Just tell the truth’

According to Maisie’s family, the childcare centre – Nido Early School, is trying to gloss over what has happened.

toddler escapes childcare — Source: Nine News

Maisie’s granddad, Duncan Reed told NINE news,

Could you imagine if something had happened? She could have been hit by a car, I just can’t put it into word.

I‘m so disappointed by the way we have been treated, the way the children have been treated. It’s not fair. Just tell the truth guys.”

Reed explains that the facility initially told Maisie’s parents that the toddler was “left unattended” but didn’t share the details of what exactly happened.

Nido Early School in Werribee declined to comment.

A Department of Education and Training spokesperson said they were investigating a report of an unsupervised child at Nido Early School yesterday.

The health and safety of all children in early childhood centres is our top priority,” the spokesperson said. “As the matter is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to provide further comment at this time.”

Not the first time

As mentioned, this isn’t the first time a child has escaped childcare. In December 2021, this exact thing happened at the very same centre.

In November 2021 we also shared a story about a Gold Coast early education centre that was fined after two children escaped and were found on a busy road. The incident occurred in October 2020 at Okeedokee Coomera Rivers

The toddlers’ families were also not told what exactly had happened, only that there was an incident. One of the little girl’s grandmothers told Mum Central:

It was only due to social media that I actually got to see what actually happened.

We were told that she was only missing for a matter of minutes, however, the lady who stopped said that when she took the kids back inside, they told her that they didn’t even realise they were missing.”

Children left on hot buses

In March 2020 a Goodstart Early Learning bus driver and centre director left a three-year-old in the back of the bus for six scorching hours in Cairns, Queensland. The little boy, Meeky, died. The Goodstart Early Learning driver pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is currently serving a six-year jail sentence.

toddler left on bus — Both Meeky and Neveah were left on childcare buses in QLD.

This nearly exact same thing happened just last month too. Again, in Queensland, and after the laws were meant to change to ensure this never happened again!

Three-year-old Nevaeh was left strapped in on the Le Smileys Early Learning Centre bus in Rockhampton. She was found six hours later, unconscious and in critical condition. Thankfully, little Nevaeh made a miraculous recovery.

We also recently shared a story of a one-year-old who arrived home from her daycare covered in bite marks. The childcare centre did not inform the mother and has not addressed the issue.